The United States is home to many anuran species, each with traits that set them apart from one another. Understanding trait variation within and between anurans key successful conservation, management, research efforts. However, compiling data intensive time consuming. Trait databases can meet this need, but currently there no detailed database collates for of the contiguous States. into a sin...

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of germ cell depletion on the sexual differentiation of gonads in five anuran species. We used busulfan to eliminate the germ cells. Our results indicate that germ cells are not required for gonadal ridge formation or the development of the undifferentiated gonads. We observed a gradual degeneration of gonads in studied species and the transd...

The moss froglet Bryobatrachus nimbus is a recently described terrestrial and direct anuran from southwestern Tasmania. A 17-stage table based on changes in external was developed in order to calculate development rates and larval This staging demonstrated that development was not predominantly intracapsular as earlier reported. Instead, larvae hatch from the capsule two to three months after o...

Thyroid hormone induces the complete metamorphosis of anuran tadpoles into juvenile frogs. Arguably, anuran metamorphosis is the most dramatic effect of a hormone in any vertebrate. Recent advances in pharmacology and molecular biology have made the study of this remarkable process in the frog Xenopus laevis attractive to developmental biologists and endocrinologists alike. In particular, the a...

This study investigates ovulation and egg deposition behaviors in the anuran Eleutherodactylus coqui from Puerto Rico in response to stimulation with gonadotropin and gonadotropin releasing hormones. Five hormones were tested by injection over a range of doses, including mammalian LHRH, avian LHRH, fish LHRH, D-Ala6, des-Gly10 ethylamide LHRH and hCG. We report a low level of ovulation and egg ...

Ecological communities are structured by both deterministic and stochastic processes. We investigated phylogenetic patterns at regional and local scales to understand the influences of seasonal processes in shaping the structure of anuran communities in the southern Pantanal wetland, Brazil. We assessed the phylogenetic structure at different scales, using the Net Relatedness Index (NRI), the N...

The anuran amphibian, Rana catesbiana, has been found to possess at least two kinds of immunoglobulins corresponding to gammaG- and gammaM-classes. These classes have the same chain structures as those of their counterparts in higher animal species. Light chains of both immunoglobulins had molecular weights of 20,000. Heavy chains of the gammaM-class had molecular weights of 72,100; those of th...

In laboratory experiments, conspecific excretions and ammonia solutions evoked avoidance reactions in tadpoles of three anuran species, Bufo bufo, Rana temporaria, and Rana arvalis. A differential sensitivity of ammonia chemoreception was determined for two anuran species. For Bufo bufo tadpoles, these characteristics at ammonia background concentration of 0.2 mg/l lied in the range 150 % < dI/...

A method is presented for the direct relative quantitation of distinct O-linked mucin-type oligosaccharides. Mucin-type oligosaccharides are found in a host of tissues from anuran to humans. Because they are often associated with extracellular matrix, they play important roles in cell-cell recognition. Changes in glycosylation of O-linked oligosaccharides are associated with diseases such as ca...